Former President Donald Trump, at a campaign rally in Montana on Friday, accused Vice President Kamala Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, of running on “fake biographies.”
Trump’s plane was diverted to Billings earlier in the day due to mechanical problems, but he appeared on stage at Bozeman’s Breeden Fieldhouse an hour and a half later than scheduled but was quick to attack his 2024 opponent.
“So when you’re commander in chief, you don’t run and hide from the press,” the 78-year-old former president said, seemingly referring to Harris’ failure to give interviews to the press or hold a press conference since taking over for Biden, the top Democratic candidate.
“You know, they want to get away and have a fake record. They both have fake records,” he continued, referring to Harris and Waltz.
Walz, 60, has been criticized by Republicans and veterans for exaggerating his military record.
The Minnesota governor falsely claims he served in the National Guard for 24 years but never deployed to a combat zone, claiming he has served in a “war.” Walz retired from the National Guard in 2005 as his battalion was preparing to deploy to Iraq.
“What about the new guy? Do you like him?” Trump asked the crowd, who responded with boos.
“If you can’t hold a press conference, you can’t be president,” the former president later criticized Harris again.
He then called the 59-year-old vice president an “idiot” and claimed that President Biden, 81, is “smarter than her but the Democratic Party didn’t have the courage to remove her from the ticket.”
The 45th president’s visit to Big Sky Country included taking part in a pre-rally fundraiser, but his main purpose was to support Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy in his closely fought race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.
Democrats currently outnumber Republicans in the Senate 51-49, and Montana’s seat would be a big gain for Republicans in the November election.
Trump slammed Tester as an “extremist” and “horrible,” saying the Montana Democrat had “the biggest stomach I’ve ever seen.”
Tester is the only Democrat in Montana’s congressional delegation, a state that also has a Republican governor and Republicans control both houses of the state Legislature.
The incumbent’s victories in the past three elections were narrow.
Tester was elected to the Senate by 0.9 percentage points in 2006. He did even better in 2012, winning reelection by 3.7 percentage points, but took a slight hit in 2018, winning by just 3.5 percentage points.
Trump won the state by double-digit votes in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
An Emerson College Poll/The Hill poll released Thursday gave Sheehy a two-point lead over Tester, 48% to 46%.
Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, addressed the crowd before Trump and said he decided to run for president after Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“I was on the phone trying to reach American citizens, our allies, our translators, the people who fought alongside us to fight terrorists. [out of the country]”Joe Biden left them behind in Afghanistan. He left them behind, he left billions of dollars worth of equipment behind,” he said.
“That incident made me get involved in politics. I said, ‘Enough is enough. I’m sick of this nonsense. We’ve got to save this country.'”
